More Fuel for the Fire

To the Editors:

"Fuel Efficiency and the Economy" by Roger Bezdek and
Robert Wendling (March-April) provided a fascinating insight into
the problems that the largest consumer of fossil fuels per capita in
the world faces in trying to move toward a more efficient fossil
fuel economy. Unfortunately the CAFE program, in focusing on
efficiency and decreasing dependence on Middle East oil, ignores the
fact that all countries in the developed world must reduce their
fossil fuel consumption habits drastically if we are to minimize the
consequences of global warming due to human activity.

Although global warming was outside the parameters of their study,
perhaps the authors should have read the recently published third
edition of John Houghton's Global Warming: The Complete
Briefing. They would have then found it more difficult to make
the assessment that hybrid and fuel-cell-powered vehicles, as well
as battery-powered electric vehicles for short-distance urban
travel, are unlikely to play a significant role in the future.

This is unfortunate, since they are then forced to assess
unrealistic scenarios. Even if one accepts their basic premise that
gasoline-powered vehicles will continue to play a dominant role in
the future, then one must question their assumption that the price
of gasoline will remain in the hypothetical range from U.S. $1.25 to
1.75 per U.S. gallon (in 2002 dollars).

Canadians pay about 85 to 95 Canadian cents per liter (U.S. $4.00 to
$4.50 per U.S. gallon), and have been doing so for many years. In
most European countries, the price is two to three times this
amount. Consequently, it is not surprising that the major
innovations in personal transportation vehicles are coming from
those countries with high gasoline prices. It is tempting to suggest
that abnormally low gasoline and other fossil fuel energy prices
constitute an unfair subsidy to the U.S. economy.

Harvey A. BuckmasterUniversity of VictoriaBritish
Columbia, Canada

To the Editors:

Bezdek and Wendling's article was certainly welcome, and I hope that
the administration's energy advisors read it. Another fuel-saving
measure would come if lawmakers had the political courage to keep
SUVs, which have inferior high-speed handling, classified as trucks
for speed-limit purposes. Those who buy SUVs for safety's sake
should welcome the regulation, but for many others it would be a
strong disincentive to ownership. But if manufacturers managed to
have SUVs reclassified as cars, they would have to include them in
their CAFE fleet mileage guidelines. It sounds like a win-win-win situation.